Educating the public on the intersection of the death penalty and severe mental illness.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

TX Dept. of State Health Services Awards $25 Million in Grants

The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) has awarded $25 million in new funding to 17 local mental health centers for community-based crisis mental health services.

A total of $21.4 million has been granted to 14 local mental health centers to establish or enhance psychiatric emergency service centers or other facilities that will divert mentally ill patients from hospitals or jails by treating them efficiently in more appropriate settings. Another $3.5 million will enable 5 mental health entities to provide outpatient treatment to people who have been found incompetent to stand trial.

According to DSHS, "The funding is part of an overall effort to increase access to crisis response services, reduce the need for hospitalizations and provide alternatives to incarceration for those in mental health crises. Crises may include situations in which people are, or believe they are, suicidal, a danger to others or having significant deterioration due to a mental condition." The $25 million is part of a $82 million two-year appropriation provided by the Texas Legislature in 2007.Read the news release from DSHS.Here are details on some of the projects that have received funding:Tarrant County has received more than $4 million to pay for four new mental health crisis service programs, including one that could keep patients found incompetent to stand trial out of state hospitals. The funding will pay for programs such as restorative mental healthcare for prisoners in the Tarrant County Jail, a crisis stabilization unit, and more adult residential and respite services. (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)Austin Travis County Mental Health Mental Retardation Center has been awarded $4.6 million to establish a crisis stabilization unit for adults, where people experiencing suicidal, delusional or violent behaviors can be evaluated and stabilized. The grant will also pay for crisis transitional housing, where patients can receive care. (Austin American-Statesman)El Paso Mental Health and Mental Retardation has been awarded $1.8 million grant to provide community-based crisis mental health services to El Paso County. (El Paso Times)The Burke Center, in East Texas (Lufkin), received $1.66 million to establish a psychiatric emergency program. "The money, combined with funding from local hospitals, county governments and help from the T.L.L. Temple Foundation in finding a facility in Lufkin to use for the program, means Lufkin will soon have the only psychiatric emergency facility in the Deep East Texas region." (Lufkin Daily News)The Heart of Texas Region Mental Health Mental Retardation Center, based in Waco, will receive more than $1.7 million in state money to launch a new center for people in psychiatric crisis. The center will include a short-term observation unit, a 16-bed residential unit for people who need a place to stay for 1-2 weeks while receiving treatment, and another 16-bed unit known as the "safe haven" program for those who are no longer in crisis but who need assistance with transitioning back into the community. (Waco Tribune)All of these projects aim to relieve the stress on law enforcement and local emergency rooms and to provide critical assistance to those with mental illness and their families.

Contributors

Facts about Mental Illness and the Death Penalty

· The State of Texas ranks 47th nationally in terms of per capita spending on mental healthcare, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. It ranks 1st in executions (more than 400 since 1982).

· Around 30 percent of those incarcerated in Texas prison or jails have been clients of the state’s public mental health system. (TX Department of Criminal Justice)

· The U.S. Supreme Court has prohibited the death penalty for people with mental retardation, but it has not excluded offenders with severe mental illness from this punishment. Texas law also does not adequately protect those with diminished capacity from a death sentence.

· At least 20 individuals with documented diagnoses of paranoid schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other persistent and severe mental illnesses have been executed by the State of Texas. Many had sought treatment before the commission of their crimes, but were denied long-term care.